Dogs Earned their Keep

The dogs definitely earned their keep yesterday. I was in the garden working when I heard a big commotion with the chickens who were in the front pasture. I looked up and saw several chickens on the run back toward the house and barn. Behind them was a dog, then two dogs. So I screamed at the dogs to get out of here and my two heard me. They came running off the side porch and saw the dogs too. They went after the two dogs giving them a beating that they won't soon forget and ran them back through the fence. I think these two dogs came from a neighbor about a 1/2 mile down the road. Fortunately, because of the quick action of my dogs I didn't lose any chickens. I think it will be some time before those dogs think about coming back. Titan had blood on him and it wasn't his blood. They definitely earned their supper last night. Of course, Titan was worn out and had to take the kind of nap only a mastiff can take! Sometimes, I tend to think the dogs are lazy and good for nothing. But they are the reason that I don't have bad critters and can let my chickens free range. I used to have skunks here on a regular basis and I haven't seen or smelled a skunk in years. Dakota works all night long keeping predators at bay. My neighbor lost all his chickens to coyotes. The coyotes stay well clear of my place. Before Dakota I lost all my rabbits in one night as something, torn through the wire into the rabbit hutches. Now, my rabbits are safe, most of the time. I did lose a chicken that went through the fence into the woods on the neighbors property. Both Dakota and I watched it happen, but she couldn't do a thing because of the field fence. It was the chickens fault for leaving the dogs protection. These two dogs are definitely worth their keep, even when it seems like all they do is sleep. Blessings, Kat

Apology for my Absence

Sorry, I haven't written in a while. The holidays were busy and then after the holidays, just trying to get some down time. Then I got the flu and I was really sick for about a week. I still have a lingering cough that just won't seem to completely go away. Most days, I think it is gone and then I get a coughing spell. We have welcomed in a new year and with it have made some assessments about our life. The biggest assessment is that our budget got out of hand last year with my mom's illness requiring much of our time and then my Hashimoto's flare keeping me exhausted, sick and generally out of sorts. So, I have taken a hard look at our budget and hopefully we are back on track. January was a bit expensive with the extra propane cost that we incurred, but we still managed to put some money away for savings. We need a new car as both of ours have some serious age on them and are starting to have some problems. One of our cars is difficult to find parts for and the past several times we have had repairs done the mechanic had to make parts. That is going to get expensive. It also uses a lot of gas, so it is time for it to go before it completely dies. That is our big goal this year is to find something reliable that we can either purchase outright or finance only a small portion that we can have paid off quickly. We have not had to finance a car in years so maybe we will get lucky this year as well. The second biggest assessment is the goats. We felt like our old buck was simply not doing the job in getting our girl's pregnant. In 2013 we only had 2 of the 5 girls kid. Last year we had none. So we put him in the freezer in September and hope that our replacement buck has done his job. Several of the girl's look like they could be pregnant. I should pull blood tests and might do that soon to make sure. But if we don't have babies coming soon then it looks like we will be getting rid of all the goats. We simply can't afford to feed them if we aren't getting anything in return. I could raise several lambs and a couple of pigs every year cheaper than keeping a non producing herd. I miss my milk, cheese and butter though. So, our grocery budget had gotten out of control and I am in the process of working within a very tight and strict budget. Not everyone in the family is happy about that, but it is what it is. I have been making soup once a week and then several one dish meals that are nutritious and filling. No need for elaborate meals and the cost of a meal is greatly reduced. I am in the process of getting the garden going and hopefully we will be blessed with a good harvest. My oldest and I are getting together things that I need or want to get rid of and will have a yard sale soon. That money will go into our savings for the car as well. I plan on posting a weekly tightwad tip column so keep an eye out for this that I have done during the week to save money so that more of it can go into savings. Hope you all are having a great new year. Blessings, Kat

Not Much Happening around Here

Well, there really isn't much happening around here and I guess that is why I haven't posted in awhile. Winter has been a long one and according to the weather man it isn't over yet. We are supposed to get a freeze later this week. I hope my seedlings in the garden will be ok. The garden got started later than usual because of the cold and wet. We have only had a few days in which it was nice enough to open the windows and air out the house. I do love it when I can leave them open all the time. There is no better sleeping than when you are breathing the cool night air. It is very refreshing. I have mended some fences this past week and put more compost in the garden for the warm season plantings. I usually have cleaned out all the deep beddings from the barns, but have waited because of the weather. The rabbits are finally producing babies again, so hopefully we will have rabbit meat soon. We had problems with a cat getting in the colonies and killing babies just for the fun of killing. I had 13 babies in one colony that were just about ready to move to the grow out pens and the cat killed them. I went in one morning to 13 dead bodies with a cat sitting in the middle of the carnage. Needless to say I was not happy. I have since double fortified the colonies so maybe that won't happen again. I am hoping that my goats are pregnant, but I haven't had a chance to pull blood samples for preg testing so I don't really know for sure. I really need some good milk and some babies on the ground. The chickens are laying like crazy right now so we have plenty of eggs. I am putting up the extras so that I don't have to do without this next winter when they stop laying or we only get one or two eggs a day. I am working on my first e-book as well, but I have to admit that I haven't had much time lately to work on it. Living wheat free has been going well for our family and I must say that I enjoy food more now than I ever have. I have lost more weight and most of my pain is gone. It makes life much more tolerable. We are still battling fruit flies in the house. They have been terrible and I have tried every natural remedy there is to get rid of them. I even resorted to bug bombing the house, which I don't like to do. It got rid of them for a few days and then we started seeing them again. Now we are back to a cloud of them in the kitchen and another cloud roaming the house. I have a ban on fresh fruit coming in the house that can't be kept in the refrigerator. I am so tired of these fruit flies. It is hard to even make a meal because the little buggers are everywhere. I even has fly strips hanging all over the kitchen and only eliminated half of them. I don't have any idea where they are coming from as there is nowhere for them to breed, but they are breeding somewhere because they are in here by the droves. We went to a wedding this month which was nice, even though it was a whirlwind trip. It is tough to find someone to stay here at the farm with the animals. We did find someone though and it was nice for us all to get away together for a few days. Right now about the only thing on our plate is getting all these trees from this past winter that came down cut up and put to use or burned. I guess it is nice to say that is our major project for this spring. We have been doing so much for so long that it is nice to basically not have to do so much. We have little projects and of course there are always repairs and such, but that is minor and easy compared to having a large new project to handle what we are doing or want to do. Like I said not much exciting going on around here. Blessings, Kat

Sorry for being gone so long

I apologize to all you good folks out there for just dropping off the planet for a bit. I have been re-arranging my life and then my mom got sick and this past month has been a little taxing to say the least. I haven't forgotten about you all, I just really needed a break and to re-assess how things were going for our family. We had been in the rut of always having projects to be finished and work to be done that I felt as if that was all that I did. So, I took a step back and have done some major changing around here. Life has a much more pleasant routine these days I must say. Major projects are finished. Now it is just a matter of some daily routines to keep the farm running smoothly without major daily input. Same thing with the house, daily routines so no getting behind. I am doing some sewing again and schoolwork is going much more smoothly. One of the major things that we had to review was how much time I spent on the road running my oldest here and there. It is a major part of the day to go to town and so we had to sit her down and set a limit on all that running around. We couldn't keep jumping in the car every single time a friend called. Sometimes they need to come out here rather than us running to them. So, I am really pleased with how things are coming together. I don't feel so stressed about getting it all done and my days go much more smoothly. I have some time for myself which is nice. I am back to working on my book and have written a few articles which will be sent off soon. Like I said I have been sewing again, mostly on my clothes. That is another area that I was getting very frustrated with. I have a very hard time finding clothes that fit me properly and frankly it had gotten to the point where I was feeling very dowdy and not me with my wardrobe. So, I am redoing my wardrobe to reflect my personality and to actually fit me properly. I am really excited about it. It is like going on a shopping spree without spending any money. I just pull clothes out of my closet and am making them into something completely different that fits my personality and my figure. My husband thinks that I am going through a mid-life crisis and he might be right. I have decided that all outside chores are done early in the morning and then I shower, dress, do my hair and...wait for it....put on make-up! So that I look presentable when he comes home. I think all of this is really his fault as I was working on a cross-stitch one day in a particular dress that is styled in a 1940s era style (I like vintage things) and he told me that I looked like his grandmother sitting there with her knitting. I guess I really did, but that is not what I want to portray. Anyway, I know vanity...one of the seven deadly sins. However, I don't want my husband thinking of his grandmother when he looks at me. Not that I want to be that middle age woman trying to hang onto her 20s either. I just want to look nice and look my age (ok maybe not completely...the wrinkles could go) and look like ME. Anyway, life is good again and I have some time to have fun and do things for myself. I needed that. I am so many things to so many people that somewhere along the way "I" had gotten lost and forgotten about. And the problem with that is that we change. Who I am now is not who I was 20 years ago. Me, myself and I have changed over the years as life has molded and shaped us. I will continue to change and who I am now will not be who I am in another 20 years. My likes and dislikes change, things that I feel are important change, LIFE changes and along the way it shapes and molds and modifies us along the way. Anyway, I am finding time to be creative again and that has me feeling very alive and excited. I never really realized how much I missed it. My studio is cleaned up and organized (it took 3 weeks to get that done)and I can go in there and work for a couple of hours and feel good....really good. So now, even with all the many hats that I wear to so many people I have reconnected with myself and that is fantastic.

I am still struggling a bit with my thyroid and adrenal issues and it doesn't help that I got off track as far as food goes. However, I am getting back on track with no wheat and am beginning to feel better. The joint and muscle pain are diminishing again and I am not stiff and sore all the time with swollen joints. I just take this one day at a time and do what I can to better my health.

I decided to shut down the garden for the winter. I spend a little bit of time each morning in the garden getting it ready for spring. By spending 30 minutes or an hour every day then I will be ready and there will be no major crunch to get it done so that I can plant. I have also decide that some of the area that I used to plant will be turned into a berry patch and I will no longer be doing a CSA so I don't need that space to grow veggies. I am planting the berries in large barrels because there is the chance that we might move and I want to be able to take them with me. We realized that most of our chickens were well on in years and that is why we have had so few eggs this year. Now, we have none as they have completely shut down. So we butchered several of the oldest hens along with the spring roosters that hatched. We will be replacing those hens soon with some pullets. The goats are doing fine. We have one last goat in milk and she isn't producing much at this point. She has been in production for 16 months now so I am surprised she is still producing anything. We have 2 that are going in the freezer this week and our buck might go in the freezer in another month or two. That will be hard for me as he is such a sweet boy and we have raised him since he was 8 weeks old. However, he hasn't been that great at getting the girls pregnant and I just can't keep extra mouths to feed. The rabbits are doing ok. The second colony is busy having babies, but the first colony is in limbo. It was the colony that got hit with coccidiosis and I lost several does, my buck and most of the babies. I do have a new buck and some replacement does in there now, but nothing is going on. It is getting frustrating. The two horses are doing good, Thunder actually is doing well on our current feed program and keeping some weight on. He is going into winter looking pretty good for such an old guy. We are still splitting all the wood from these trees that came down this last year so we are well set for firewood for a good couple of years. We probably will be splitting for the rest of the winter. We just keep it steady and don't try to overdo ourselves. I don't mind splitting some wood by hand a little at a time because it does help keep my muscles in shape.

Anyway, I guess that is about it for now. Have a great day and again I am sorry for being gone so long, but I really needed the break. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Mosquitoes, Fire Ants and Blow Flies

We are now going on our 8th day of rain. Every single day rain. heavy rain. Everything is a mess with the muck and the mud everywhere. I am tired of the rain and I am tired of the mud. The weeds is my garden are a nightmare. I suppose I could pull weeds in the rain as long as it isn't thundering and lightening, but goodness I have to change clothes enough just tending to the critters. by the way they are tired of the rain too. Even the ducks are tired of the rain and I am finding them more and more in the goat barn. And with all this rain with the humidity comes....mosquitoes...fire ants....and blow flies. I have had 6 rabbits die of fly strike and the others weren't looking so well so the other 7 were killed and put in the freezer for the dogs. The dogs are eating well. Which stinks because several of those rabbits were ready to process and I was looking forward to some rabbit. The blow flies are terrible around here right now and I am trying to check critters everyday and keep things as clean as possible, but when the rain runs right through the aisleway of the barn carrying mud and muck with it it's hard. The chickens are staying fat and sassy though, but there are even more than they can eat. My local feed store will be happy because with the amount of fly spray that I am using around here daily to try and protect the critters, especially from the blow flies. The mosquitoes are breeding like crazy too...apparently they don't take a break while it's raining. I was in the garden yesterday trying to pick what I could, but the mosquitoes were eating me alive. And if the mosquitoes weren't eating me then the fire ants that have popped up everywhere were. you would think those suckers would drown with all this rain and the ground soaked as it is. Oh well, we are getting a good amount of school work done but it isn't easy having to keep Little britches in the house so much. She really is an outside girl. Oh well, gotta put on my mud shoes and slog through the mud to take care of chores. If I get stuck I hope somebody will come to my rescue. Have a great day, Kat

Where I've been and what I've been up too

Wow, things have been busy and since the mornings are getting started real early around here due to the heat, I haven't posted much. I guess I should get better about that. A few weeks ago a friend of mine got two horses and they didn't settle in very well. Her experience with horses is limited and so this old horse trainer pulled out her dust covered boots and headed down the road every morning after chores to help. The horses have settled in now and we are just working out some kinks with two horses that haven't had much riding or work for several years. So being with her horses has really inspired me to stop procrastinating and putting off my own horses. I have been working on getting BC back into shape and making plans to get Whisper started again. I stated in another post earlier this spring that this is the year of the horse in which much needed repairs and such get done to the horse barn. So I started working on that yesterday. The feed room out there is now nice and tidy, all tack has been gone through and will be cleaned today. The tack area has been cleaned and organized. Today I have plans to make some repairs to BC's stall. I will be taking out the old hay rack that was built way to high up on the back wall to be able to throw hay into and installing a new (to him) hay tub. Why a tub? Because we frequently feed bagged chaff haye and it won't go in a standard hay rack. Then I have the side door to repair, which I was thinking about widening but because of our water problem with that barn I might not. I will be installing a drainage ditch at the door which tends get trampled down to allow the water to flow into the barn. I will put a pipe in there so that doesn't happen and there is still room for the water to flow around the barn instead of through the barn. Then I will be cleaning the outside of that side of the barn where all the junk has accumulated. So busy busy day this morning. Of course the garden is finally in production and we have been getting some good rain the past few days. We just keep planting and will plant straight through fall since the spring was off to such a bad start this is the only way to make up the difference. I don't think I will get much squash this year even though the plants look great. No squash vine borers and no squash bugs, but the squash are not maturing well. Maybe that will get better with time. Harvested most of the onions. Didn't get a whole lot but they are nice looking and I am sure will taste delightful. Sweet potatoes are in the ground and the first crop of corn should be ready soon. We had another snake in the garden so dear hubby got in there and thoroughly cleaned out some areas that I haven't been able to get to with everything else that needed to be done. The weeds and the snakes seem abundant this year. The goats are doing well and still no babies which is driving me nuts even though a couple of my girls look like they are going to explode. I wish they would pop soon because Dolly and Windy are both dropping in milk production. I still don't have a shortage though and have made some cheese and ice cream pretty regularly. Since the heat is getting to be unbearable we spend most of the day inside. The little one and I have been doing some crosstitch and the oldest has had a cold. I have some sewing projects that I likely will be finishing up soon. Other than that we are plugging along doing what we can outside before the heat gets to be too much and then enjoying the quiet time inside for the rest of the day. Hope your summer is going well and your garden is producing. Blessings, Kat

Springtime on the farm

Wow, it is definitely spring even with this cold spell we are having. Yes, I said cold spell. Normally we are hitting mid 80s and a couple weeks ago we were doing just that. Now we are hitting mid 60s. I had to close the windows in the house and am having to put on a jacket for the morning chores! Unbelievable. But if it means that summer will be slightly cooler I will take it. So we are definitely seeing springtime on the farm around here. 3 hens have been sitting on nests and two have hatched out babies. One hatched out at least 6 that I saw, but since she nested in a very bad spot we lost 3 right off the bat. One of the other hens has 3 bitties with her and I have no idea if she hatched out more or how many she was sitting on. She was a total surprise. Another hen is sitting on about 7 eggs so we will see if she hatches out any. So far we have 6 baby chicks on the farm. One of our ducks is sitting on a nest also....right in my new huguelkultur bed in the garden. I don't care she can sit there as long as she needs to if she will hatch out some babies. The wild birds are nesting and we found some Robin eggs in the garden. Not sure if they hatched and the shells were cleaned out of the nest or if something got to them and dropped the shells. However, they were very pretty and made for a nice science lesson for Little Britches. Now, if the goats would just do their part and have some babies of their own so I can get to making cheese. It looks like Sugar and Coffee are beginning to develop udders and a milk line so we will see. The others I simply have no clue. Although milk production with Dolly is up because of all the fresh browse. Even old Thunder is feeling frisky these days and I think I am going to have to separate him from his daughter. He hasn't shown any interest in her in years but the new feeding program for him must be doing some good. I think I might need to back off his Red Cell for a little while. The rabbits are in full production mode and I can't keep up with the litters that are being born. The only problem is that they all seem to like the same nesting box, which is the top of a dog kennel. So thank goodness it is big enough because one will have a nest in one corner of it and another one will have a nest in another corner of it. My chinchilla doe is by far my best producer and she loves to be pregnant and having babies. Thank goodness she does take the summer off because I am afraid that she will wear herself out. I put two of her daughters in the second colony so hopefully I will continue with her great mothering genetics. She produces nice large babies that grow out well also. So far with everyone in full production the buns are getting their full feed ration, along with hay and fresh greens picked daily. When they stop producing for the summer then I will cut back their grain ration. With all the rain everything is really wet around here and I already had to strip the main rabbit colony once after the big spring cleanout. Usually I only have to do that once every other month, but it barely lasted a month with all the rain. We just seem to be getting so much at once and the roof leaks in a couple spots and sometimes if it is heavy enough it will come over the edge of the concrete into the colony soaking the bedding. I don't want babies being born in wet bedding so I had to make sure to get it stripped again. The buns were so excited to have clean fresh bedding. We were worried about colony 2 with all the rain because water does seem to seep under the walls if it rains hard enough, but apparently it is holding up well and the bedding was dry. The conveyor belt that a friend gave us seems to have really helped with that. I guess the water went under the belt and that way the bedding and bunnies stayed dry. I really have to get those bunnies some more toys and hidey holes in there. The garden is coming along well and of course the weeds are flourishing as well as the veggies are. So everyday I spend about 30 minutes or so pulling weeds. If I keep on top of it then it doesn't become such a chores. I need to move some tomato plants today. I even have several volunteers from around the garden coming up so I will move those into the tomato patch as well. Of course, I am still planting in the garden it takes awhile to get it full and I keep coming up with spots to plant more. If everything keeps going though we will have an abundance of food for us and for the livestock. At least that will cut down on the bill some. I am concentrating on protein (peas) and black oil sunflower seeds for the livestock because those are our two most expensive ingredients in our feed. We will see how it goes. This winter I will grow some grains, but I don't expect to be able to grow nearly enough. We have also been getting in wood for this coming winter. It is nice to have the "new" woodshed to stack it in and to work near. We are getting a second wood stove and so will need all the wood we can get for this winter. And of course with all the rain we are fighting fire ants once again. They are popping up all over the place. Where the chickens are we don't have too much of a problem with them but they are everywhere in the garden and all over the pastures. I also have to be watchful of the rabbit colonies because believe it or not they will come over the concrete into the colony. If you have been reading here long you know I don't like poisons, but for fire ants nothing else works. Believe me I have tried every single home remedy there is. I use the minimal amount that I can get away with to kill those suckers but they must be killed! So that is spring around here so far. How is your spring going? Hope it is going well. Blessings, Kat

The Cost of this Life

Lately on the homesteading type forums there have been loads of questions about the cost of this life vs. the cost of continued consumerism. Many people want to know what they can do for themselves to save money. I am completely amazed at the responses that tell them that they are better off buying their groceries because they will spend more. The average answer is that buying groceries is cheaper, but think of the quality that you get from growing your own. While that is true, I find it hard to believe that I and a handful of others actually truly do save money. If I bought all that we eat I simply couldn't afford it. So how is it that I can save money while it seems that the rest of my homesteading friends spend more than they would at the grocery store. I think the answer can be as simple as KISS...keep it simple stupid. I saw an answer that detailed the list of things needed to have a garden. The list was a paragraph in and of itself. Here is my list...a shovel, a dirt fork, a hoe, a rake, open pollinated seeds, a hose, and a wheelbarrow. With those few things one can grow a tremendous amount of food year after year. If you buy those things used then you save even more money yet. I recently saw a craigslist add for about 60 hand gardening tools for 30.00. Yes, I called and they were already gone. Whoever got them got a great deal! People were also saying that chickens produced expensive eggs and that you can buy eggs much cheaper in the grocery store. Hmmm....maybe for some but my chickens cost me nothing. They free range and get kitchen or garden scraps. Even their housing can be built for free using reclaimed materials or pallets. If they must be confined because of predator issues they can still be fed scraps and garden trimmings/waste. my hens not only produce eggs for me but they raise little ones to replace themselves each year. So while I might have spent 75.00 or so on my initial flock, I have made that back over and over again. There are two ways to approach this life...1. is the willingness to put in the effort of using the resources available and the other is still with the consumer mindset of buying everything you think you need brand new. So this life can cost as much or more than the traditional consumer lifestyle if you want it too or it can cost much less with some effort and ingenuity. It is up to you. I just want to encourage those that don't have a lot of capital that this lifestyle is attainable and no you don't have to go broke maintaining it or even starting up. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Feeding livestock from the farm

About a year ago we made the decision to feed as many of our animals from the farm as much as we could. If we just had small animals that might be more easily done, but we have the goat herd that is in production (need more calories) and we have the horses(lean mean eating machines). How were we to go about this big change and all the extra work? Well, like everything else we made a plan that was feasible to do and then started working on it slowly. So here is our plan and how we implemented that plan. Warning...some things described are not for the faint of stomach.

We started with the cats. The cats hunt for a good portion of their food and I will have to say we don't have near the problem of mice that we used to have. So giving them cat food was basically just a supplement to their diet of mice and other rodents. It was relatively easy to change that supplement to table scraps with a few extra eggs and some milk thrown in for the proteins that they need. The cats have been eating this way for a year now and they are healthy and happy. They don't get fat and lazy and they keep up their hunting skills. When we butcher they get some of the scraps which also help with their protein and organ meat needs although they get that when they hunt. They eat their kills vs. bringing them to us or bringing them on the porch to "play" with them. By feeding them table scraps they get a wide portion of food and my cats will eat the vegetables that are mixed in with everything else most of the time.

Next we moved to the dogs full time. We were feeding the dogs kibble, I won't say which one but it was a high quality grain free kibble. Feeding the dogs this kibble was costing up approximately 60.00 a month. So we made up our minds that we were going to feed the dogs like the predators that they were with meat, bones and organ meats. When we butcher all the things that we don't use now feed the dogs. We use to have to bury the heads and now we don't. We simply split the skull and give it to the dogs. They clean up everything on it that they can and then the chickens pick the bones clean, literally. All pieces of bone that aren't eaten are gathered up and buried in the garden to enrich the soil. The dogs clean the cowl off of the guts and then we bury what they don't eat or what the chickens don't clean up behind them. The whole purpose of the second rabbit colony is to feed the dogs and give the cats some extras. They also get extra eggs, some milk and any whey from making cheese or cheese mistakes that are made. All of the dogs are happy and healthy. The biggest plus has been that Valentine skin allergies seem to be better, not cured but better. She now has hair where she has not had hair for years because of the itching.

The next move that we are working on now is the rabbits. We have plenty of weeds during the spring and summer along with some garden produce, but we planted more this year for them. We have planted tons of peas so that we have a source of protein and are growing more sunflowers for calories and vitamins. We are also planting a grain patch to grow for them. The grain patch will also be a good source of long stem fiber for them so that we can cut some of their outside hay cost. The hay that we feed them is mainly for the long stem fiber that they need to keep their digestive tract working properly. Spanish moss is also a good source of this and we have plenty of that. The key for the rabbits is being able to have enough variety for them and keeping that variety throughout the whole year. We probably supply close to half of what they need now during the growing season, but we have a ways to go still to be able to completely get away from purchasing their feed.

The chickens we have never purchased food for. They eat the horse and goat leftovers (what they waste). Two of our horses even let the chickens peck out of their feed pans while they eat. The chickens are also instrumental in helping to clean up butchering waste and it is amazing at how well they can clean up a gut pile leaving nothing but the interior contents. They hunt for their own bugs and forage for their own greens. We have much fewer bugs with the chickens roaming the pastures and the house. They are extremely healthy and lay well. I am sure we could push them to lay more in the winter when there isn't that much to forage on, but they need the break. Laying eggs is hard work.

With the goats we are not anywhere near being able to feed them year round without store bought grains. We do well to be able to cut back on things during the summer when so much of their food intake comes from foraging. Our plan this year is to overseed the pastures with cool season grasses and such that will provide them with more forage during the late fall and winter so that they don't require as much hay. However, when they are in production they simply need the concentrated calories that they get from grain. They also need the alfalfa for calcium and protein. We are hoping that we can supplement some of the protein with peas and some of the calcium with more clover so that we don't have to purchase as much. However, we are a long way away from being able to completely feed them from the farm. If we only had two or three goats it might be feasible, but not with 9. We are growing more root crops this year to help supplement their calorie needs this winter. That might decrease their outside grain needs, but it won't eliminate it.

The horses are pretty much like the goats. I am not sure that we could completely eliminate their outside feed needs. We have a very old stallion that simply needs the high calorie content of a senior feed. Our pastures are still in need of work and frankly I don't think we have enough land to be able to pasture them year round with no additional needs. They would be a goal that is a long way down the road.

So as you can see it is a slow work in progress. We start with one group and work from there. If we tried to take care of everyone all at once it would be too overwhelming to even imagine. Blessings from the farm, Kat

2013 Goals Update

Well we are well into 2013 and so far I have to say we have done pretty well working toward the goals that we wanted to achieve this year. So far we have rebuilt the woodshed and are in the process of filling it to the brim. When it is full it will probably be enough wood for two years, so we are happy with that. Then this past week we finished the second rabbit colony and they seem to be enjoying it well. They are beginning to calm down a bit when I come in and realize that I am the feed lady. Next on the list is the outdoor summer shower and we have all the materials to build that. We will probably get that done this week. It will be nice to have a shower after working in the garden or the barns without having to track all that dirt in the house and into the tub. Yes, I get pretty dirty when I am in the garden. After the outdoor shower then we will build a smokehouse so that we can smoke our hams next season here at home and not have to impose on our neighbor to use her smoker. I might even be able to smoke some cheeses and such. Oh, the possibilities of having our own smokehouse. So much work to do and so little time before the blistering temperatures of summer hit us. I don't work well in the heat and so that limits how much outside work can be done around here. The garden is finally doing pretty well. Things are growing and so canning season will be here before we know it. That will keep me pretty busy. The big project for the year will be refencing the perimeter. That project will probably take all summer to complete. We have to clear the fences first. Right now we are letting the goats out to work on that part. Might as well kill two birds with one stone...feed the goats and clear the fences. I found another litter in c0lony 1 yesterday so I am happy to say that those rabbits are breeding like...rabbits! I am still waiting for the chicks to hatch from my broody hen. I check on her everyday since she didn't pick the best spot to sit on eggs...the top of the grow out cages in the goat barn. Since we have had loads of rain the weeds are growing like crazy all around the place so the bunnies are getting plenty of fresh green food which is great because then I can cut back on their grain. Colony 1 has so many rabbits in it though that I am keeping their grain ration the same. I know they will start slowing down in another month or so because of heat sterility. It will be good for them to have a little break even though they rotate who is pregnant and nursing and who is not. My chinchilla do though doesn't seem to like a break and I have to say she has been my best doe as far as production. Colony 2 is made up mostly of her daughters so that I continue that trait in my herd. Things seem to be moving right along and going well this year. I hope this keeps up and now to get the tractor fixed and up and running. Hopefully, your year is going well also. Blessings from the farm. Kat

The year of the ......Snake?!!

What is this the year of the snake for us? We have had snakes on occasion, but they have been rare occasions considering how long we have been here. Most of our sightings and encounters happened when we first moved here since there were so many piles of junk around the place and buildings that were not used. However, this seems like it is going to be the year of the snake for us. We have already seen one in the garden, one moving across the road (away from our farm)and now there is a black rat snake in the feed room. I really don't mind snakes as long as they keep their distance, but in my feed room is not keeping their distance. I know what that snake is after. I have a hen sitting on eggs in there. He better not get my bitties. So watch out folks, just because we don't see them doesn't mean that they aren't around. No telling how long that black rat snake has been in that feed room and just been hidden whenever I am in there. I am hoping that this will be the end of my snake encounters for a little while. I really don't like coming across them. I don't mind them around but I just don't want to know it. On a good note we have made plans for the new rabbit colony, our second one. I will get started on building it this week so that we can get rabbits in there as soon as possible. I have some that are close to maturity in the grow out cages so they should start producing relatively soon. We have gotten a little behind on processing rabbits. Have a blessed day. Kat

The year of the horse

My poor horses have really had to make do over the past couple of years as we have been busy with other infrastructure for goats, chickens, pigs and garden. We have always had a drainage issue with the barn because when it was built (not by us) site location was not a big consideration. When it rains the rain runs downhill and right through the barn, creating at the least a cleaning pain or at most an unusable nightmare. In the past we had brought in some crushed limestone for the floor of the barn which helped, but like I said the last couple of years we haven't done much of anything and this past winter we got a lot of rain. The barn is a mess and currently isn't really useable as we can't get the water out of the barn. We have stripped the stalls which lowered them even more and we are still getting loads of rain each week. So, this has to be the year of the horse. We are going to strip out the inside of the barn, bring in dirt and get those stalls back to the shape they need to be in. We also need to re-do the French drain around the outside of the barn to keep water from coming through it. Then there is roofing work to be done and some of the siding is loose. Essentially the horse infrastructure around here is a mess and this has got to be the year that it is taken care of. So, it looks like I will be on the phone today to get the best price on a dump truck load of crushed limestone and we will be trenching around the barn within the next couple of weeks. Since this is the year of the horse the fences need doing too. I have been saying over the last year that we were going to get to those fences and this is the year. Loads of money and time, but it has to be done. My poor ponies have had to make do long enough and now is the time to give them a better environment. Everyone else is happy and settled so now it is their turn. We also need to get them separated at feeding time because we are having issues with out mare being a bully and the boys are getting run off from their food. Poor old Thunder doesn't need that hassle as he has a hard enough time keeping on weight. Well, we do the best we can and keep moving forward to do better. This year the horses get "better" and everyone else can make do. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Happenings around the farm

Well, now that the rain and cold seems to have settled down some I might actually get the garden planted and growing. We have run out of time for spring (cool weather) crops to come up from seed so I bought some plants the other day. Maybe I will get a small crop of these things before the heat of summer gets here. I am planting twice what I normally plant because I just have a feeling that this year will not be a good garden year. This spring has been crazy weather and already put me way behind and I have had to replant several times already. Ok, some of the replanting is due to the chickens, but the drenching rains we have had have had a role too. I planted strawberries this year, 36 plants all total and I am thinking of buying a few more. I will try to get some more things in the ground today and tomorrow. I am hoping to be done with planting for the most part within the next week. We still have no goat babies and all of the pigs are heading to the freezer. These little pigs are just too much trouble. I will stick with feeder pigs each year for awhile. Keeping pigs year round is rough on fences and on the feed bill, especially when neither of the females gave us viable babies. At least we will have pork and I will start looking for a couple of feeders soon. The chickens are back to laying like crazy and we now have egg customers again so they will be earning their keep. The dogs and cats will be sad that their egg supply will be going elsewhere though. They have been enjoying the extra eggs. Titan is doing well with his obedience lessons and starting to come into his adult temperament. He notices when things are different and takes serious offense to that. The other night my husband laid down on the big couch and Titan noticed something was different and let out two big growls. Then yesterday the studio door was open because I was in there doing some cleaning up. Titan noticed it and barked and growled until I stepped to the door to tell him it was just me. Both are good signs that he will make a good property guard. Dakota killed a possum the other night in the big barn. She is such a good dog. I don't know what we would do without her. And Valentine is being her usual old lady grumpy self. I guess we need an old lady dog to keep the others in line. The rabbits were doing really well and having babies like gangbusters, but they seem to have gone on vacation these days. I haven't had a litter in over 6 weeks. I keep telling them that summer is coming and they need to get busy as I need to get some serious rabbit meat in the freezer. They aren't listening. I guess they will ramp up here soon. maybe the crazy weather has them thrown off. I can't milk rabbits though and so I really wish my goat girls would get on the ball with some baby action. My neighbor down the road has already had her babies and I am having serious baby goat withdrawals! However, the good news is that the little buckling she had is coming to live with us when he is ready to leave his mama. We have already named him Moonshine and he is beautiful. He has some excellent bloodlines (Kastdemur) and his mama has a beautiful udder. I am excited to see what he does with improving my herd. Not that Buck is not a good boy, but it will be nice to have some different and lets face it better blood in the herd. We have lots of spring projects that have been on hold because of the rain and so now is the time to get busy before the heat of summer gets here. Two things that I really want to get done are the outdoor solar shower and a second rabbit colony. The second colony will help in meat production so that we don't feel like we are short when we feed rabbit to the dogs. Now that we are feeding raw we really need the extra production. The outdoor shower is great especially for those times that the little one gets muddy from head to toe and when I get filthy and dirty from being in the garden. I loved having one before in the summer and it sure does help on the power bill. I will post instructions when we get started on it. Petunia is turning 15 this weekend and she is studying for her learner's permit. It really makes me feel old. I found it hard to believe that she had become a teenager and now she is a teenager that drives (or will soon). Look out world here she comes! She is also learning how to cook and has already fixed a couple of simple suppers for the family. I have to admit having a teen in the house is nice. She may not want to do outside chores, but I hate inside chores and she is more than happy to fold laundry, vacuum and clean the kitchen. We make a good team. Little britches on the other hand is good at making messes and really is having a difficult time understanding the cleaning up and chore part of the deal. She would much rather be outside all the time in any kind of weather doing what country kids do....getting dirty....really dirty. Well, other than just normal everyday things that is about all that is happening here. Busy with the garden, busy trying to get time to work on other projects, busy with spring in general. Hope your days are happy and busy as well. Blessings, Kat

Twisted Bowel

We lost Strawberry last night. She went out yesterday afternoon with the rest of the herd to browse. She was a little reluctant when she left out of the barn and only when the rest of the herd moved far enough away did she move out to join them. She was supposed to have been pregnant and I had noticed that her belly was increasing in size especially over the past week. She wasn't hard or distended, just beginning to look pregnant. The day before yesterday she didn't really want me around her when I made my morning rounds. She let me briefly scratch her behind before she bolted away. I though this too was attributed to pregnancy and since I didn't catch when she was bred I though maybe she was closer than I thought. Well, I checked on her while the herd was out grazing and she seemed to be content with them doing what goats do. Then when I called the herd in for the evening she didn't come with them. I looked and she was laying down in the driveway, laying in a funny way like she just fell down on her belly. My first thought was that she was going to have a baby in my driveway. So I got her into the barn at which point she went down and wouldn't get back up. I went and got my husband and we picked her up and moved her into the kidding stall. I got all my meds to make my "rescue remedies". Even though her rumen was not distended I gave her a baking soda, corn oil, molasses drench. I did everything I normally do for whatever might be the problem although really I had no idea because she didn't have any typical symptoms. She started grunting and acting like she was having contractions, but then she wasn't dilated. Somehow I knew she was dying. She died within an hour of us getting her into the kidding stall. Again thinking that she was pregnant we did an emergency C-section. What we didn't find was babies. What we did find was a terrible bowel mess. her rumen was normal size, but her gut was a mess. Apparently it had twisted or impacted (I was holding most of it in my lap so not sure which at that point). She had loads of empty intestine (not normal) and one particular spot about a foot or so long that was incredibly distended and black. Her bile duct on her liver was also terribly swollen indicating that the digestive process had stopped. There is absolutely nothing that could have been done to save her nor prevent this. unfortunately it is something that happens. If you own livestock then eventually you will have deadstock. It just goes to how that since goats are prey animals they are experts at hiding pain and weakness. The intestine took quite some time to get necrotic, it didn't happen over night and she had been in pain while that happened for quite some time but she still acted normal until the day before yesterday. I am a bit sad this morning. I am a fixer and I just hate situations that I simply can't fix. unfortunately, we won't be able to use the meat for us since I thought I was doing a C-section and I nicked the bladder spilling all contents into the body cavity. The dogs however will get the benefit, they don't particularly care if their meat has been marinated in urine. At least she won't be wasted even though it was a sad night last night. Well, chores are waiting I had better get to it. Blessings, Kat

It's Raining... Again

Ok, really I am just a little tired of the rain. The garden is now officially way behind. Seeds that were planted a couple weeks ago are probably rotten because there is no sign of them. The onions look like they are beginning to rot before they even get started. I have a foot of mulch in the pathways and I am still splashing water when I walk through there. Now, the septic tank is beginning to grumble because the ground around the field lines is saturated. Really, did we need a whole years rainfall within a month's period of time?! Ok, I guess I have gotten my grumbling off my chest now. The good news is that I have done some things that I was putting off so that I could go play in the dirt. I have made and milled lots of soap and I am finally getting the goat fat that I had in the freezer rendered so that I can make more soap. My goal is to get all the soap made and all the fat rendered and out of the freezer. The laundry is caught up and put away and the taxes are almost finished. I probably will finish those today along with the soap. Tonight I get to catch chickens and clip their wings. They are devastating what is in my garden. yesterday morning I had turnip greens...yesterday afternoon I had turnip stems. Yep, in just a few hours they got in and stripped the turnip greens of anything leafy and they started nibbling on roots that were poking out of the ground. I really hate chickens and if they didn't provide me food for next to nothing then I would butcher every last one of them. However, right now I am getting between 8 and 9 eggs a day and that certainly helps if nothing else than to feed the dogs and pigs. Speaking of pigs, I think I might be about done with pigs. It doesn't matter how well we repair the fence they get out. Only two of them mind you, the other one never gets out. you can leave the gate wide open and he is content to stay put. Also, with small pigs it takes considerably longer for them to get to any size worth butchering and by then they are tough. I want pork chops and ribs that melt off the bone when you cook them. I don't want pork loin that is harder to chew than jerky. We just butchered a sow that was just under 2 years old. She was a good size and we got about 35-40 lbs of meat off of her. We ground every last bit of it because the loin that we cooked was too tough to chew. The ribs we cooked needed tyrannosaurus rex teeth to pull the meat off the bone. The other ribs will go to the dogs, maybe they will have better luck. The one thing I did like was the amount of lard that I got off of her....over 2 gallons after rendering. So, I am debating on whether or not to go back to larger hogs that grow out faster (but eat you out of house and home for 6 months) or stick with the little pigs and just butcher younger and smaller. I have two breeders now though that right at a year old would only yield maybe 15 lbs. of meat and that is being generous. I might keep the pair of little ones to produce lard and dog food and just raise a large hog or two for us. I don't know, definitely a dilemma. The little pigs cost very little to feed. They don't get much grain at all. They mostly live off kitchen scraps and garden gleanings. They get extra eggs also and a little milk thrown in now and again. But they are much harder to fence in because they chew their way through a fence and can make just enough of an opening to squeeze their little bodies out of. The problem is that now they are heading onto my neighbors land in their daily wanderings and for those of you that have read my blog for any length of time you know that I don't need anymore problems with any of my neighbors. Pigs rooting their way through their manicured yards would definitely create some tension. Oh, well I am sure that I will come up with a solution to this issue soon. My little sow still has not has piglets yet even though she looks like she is pregnant. If I don't have piglets soon then I probably will sell her and the little boar. She is so sweet that I don't think I could butcher her. Then I will repair the fences and start looking for feeder pigs. I could always raise one for us and sell the other one. That might be an idea. So blessings from the farm and here is hoping that you all have a sunny, clear day! Kat

The Horse Meat Scandal

I guess I am getting a bit tired of hearing about the horse meat scandal in Britain. Seems everyone is in an uproar because a supplier mixed horsemeat (actually it might be donkey meat) with beef and sold it in the UK, mostly to Burger King. Now in all fairness Burger King didn't really know what their supplier did. Burger King only did what their customers wanted. That was buy the cheapest product available so their prices didn't have to go up. But lets look at the heart of this story why don't we. First lets go to Poland, where it all started. Poland up until very recently had a good portion of the population that still used horses to pull carts to market. Poland banned the use of horse/donkey pulled carts on the roadways, rendering thousands of horses and donkeys useless. So their owners unable to make a living because they couldn't use their only transportation of goods and unable to feed something that didn't work sent those horses and donkeys to slaughter by the thousands. And the people of Poland allowed this ban. This huge influx of equine into the slaughter houses greatly reduced the cost of the meat. Consumers who frequent Burger King demand that they keep their prices ultra cheap or they will go down the street to MacDonald's so Burger demanded that their suppliers keep their prices cheap. Beef was not cheap, but here was a sudden influx of very cheap horse meat. So the supplier mixed it and sent it to Burger King and all was well and good because the consumer was still getting cheap food. And then the consumer finds out and is now uproaringly mad. Consumers in the US are terrified that it could happen here. How could the government allow this?! They say in outrage. This article explains exactly how it happened and how it was allowed and no one is to blame but the consumer who didn't care about anything but cheap product. And if anyone in the states is foolish enough to think that the government here is protecting them from this while they stumble into the grocery to demand their portion of cheap meat then they need to think again. They are already being served pink slime and catfish labeled as grouper, all in the name of cheap meat and the "we don't care as long as it's cheap" mentality. One day you will care and when that day comes you will have driven all of the honest small farmers out of business with your cheap mentality and lack of caring it will be too late. You will only have corporate agriculture and guess what....they don't care. And if you think that they federal government's various alphabet agencies care about you then you are an ostrich and you best get your head out of the sand before the wolf bites devours you from behind. As long as the people allow small farmers to be attacked and driven out of business all in the name of "cheap food" then they deserve what they get. Nothing is gotten free or cheap you will pay somewhere down the line and that somewhere down the line might just be being forced to eat nothing but the pig slop of chemicals that they call food and the cost will be your health and the health of your children. So, in my opinion the customers of Burger King in Britain got what they deserved especially since they practically begged for it. It's sad really because I think of the farmers in Poland that have now lost a way of life. Now, Poles will reap what they sew when they demand cheap food. Hardworking farmers have fed the world for centuries and now the mass public is destroying them as quickly as they can. I bet many people don't understand that the Roman empire fell mainly because there weren't enough farmers to feed the population. Same thing with the Greeks. The great empires became so great and demanded that everyone became as enlightened as the town folk, or the government that there weren't enough farmers left. Farming was attacked and as a result the empires weakened and fell. Enjoy your pink slime and meat glue America. Don't worry the wolf is watching your behind. Blessings, Kat

Raising Puppy

It was hard when we lost Shotgun and really we didn't plan on getting another puppy for quite some time, however....we did. Now we have Titan (pics soon I promise), an English Mastiff/pit bull mix. He looks like an English Mastiff with just a few less wrinkles. I am sure that he is probably slightly smaller than a purebred mastiff would be. We would like it if he stays midrange of a mastiff and pit (even that is a BIG dog). He definitely has the personality of a mastiff which sometimes makes it hard to forget that the pit bull is lurking in there somewhere. No, that isn't a bad thing and pit bulls have never been an issue with me. I guess I have know too many good ones and like many other people know that there are good dogs and there are bad dogs no matter what the breed is. Believe it or not I have been bitten by more cocker spaniels than pits, rottweilers, dobermans or other "guard" type breeds. And don't even get me on the subject of jack russels! Enough of that though. This is about raising a new puppy in a farm situation. The first rule of thumb is don't trust your puppy. Puppies chase and chew and pounce. It's what they do. Puppies should not be allowed around livestock without human supervision because they will need correction for not allowed behavior. Depending on the breed will depend on the type of correction. With Dakota, I had to roll her several times to make her believe that the chickens belonged to me. With Titan a sharp no sends him running back to the house with his tail tucked shamefully between his legs. Take the puppy with you everywhere you go on the farm and enforce good behavior (just sitting watching the chickens) and correct unacceptable behavior (pouncing at the chickens). Consistency is important and even if your hands are full of feed buckets when bad behavior starts you must stop right then put the feed buckets down and correct the behavior. Dakota caused a good deal of spilled feed, while I haven't yet had to drop the buckets with Titan. Notice I said yet. He is 9 weeks old and we have a long way to go. Some dogs are much easier. Dakota, even though she is an LGD, was tough, adult chickens were great play toys. Valentine a pit mix was easy except for chasing the horses, small livestock she didn't pay attention to. We had a hound at one time that was terrible about chasing the horses. Not only would she chase but she would grab onto their tails and swing from them as they flew across the pasture. It took extreme measures to break her of that and even then we couldn't always trust that she wouldn't try. Shotgun was so bonded to me that he stayed by my side no matter what, but then he didn't have very long in life to figure out that chickens made great chase toys. Titan loves to pounce cats and is beginning to look at the chickens with interest. The next thing is to teach the dog not only basic obedience commands but give them a job. A working dog is a happy dog. Dakota guards against predators and she takes her job seriously. Valentine used to be my personal guard or the children's guard when they were in the yard. Those were her younger years and the days before her skin allergy became her obsession. She was also Cujo's muscle in confronting stray dogs. She always engaged the stray first. Cujo was our all around farm dog. He guarded against both two legged and four legged intruders. He watched over the children like a hawk. He babied and protected a lone chicken without a flock. He helped to move animals when needed. We are hoping Titan will be an all around farm dog. So far he has been learning to move pigs. To teach him he walks with us and we tell him to bring the pigs. Repeating this each time we move the pigs back to their pen (they have become Houdinis) teaches him that when I say bring the pigs they are to be herded back to their pen. Same movement, same command, same end result. He is not a herding breed so he won't ever herd like a border collie would. However, like any command he can be taught to do that command. Raising a puppy on a farm is a huge undertaking, so much more than raising a town dog because there is so much more stimulation and so much more for them to learn. Commands that we use a lot and consider key commands for a good farm dog are: Leave it (it's mine don't even look at it), sit, stay, drop it, come, and no. Of course there are other commands that are great but those are the main ones that we use on an everyday basis. I am the alpha and my dogs know that everything is mine. To have a dog on a farm the farmer absolutely must be alpha and that means that you have to behave that way from time to time. The dog has to believe it, understand it and live with it. With Dakota it took rolling her and growling at her when she grabbed a chicken or grabbed at one. With Titan it takes a sharp NO in a growly voice (so far). I truly believe that most any breed of dog can be a good farm dog if raised in the right situation with the right praise and discipline. Some breeds that have a higher prey drive (terriers, hunting breeds, herding breeds) are gonna be tougher than others and if one isn't up to the task then choose another breed. Pick a job that suits the instincts and nature of the breed or breed mix that you have. If you work with those instincts then chances are much higher of success that you can let your dog in the yard with free-ranging chickens and there won't be a bloodbath. Titan has the instinct to guard and be a companion from the Mastiff side, the pit side gives him a high prey drive. He has to learn when that prey drive is acceptable (moving pigs) or when it isn't (chasing and killing chickens). Both breeds are territorial so hopefully when he gets bigger and more confident he will be able to be Dakota's muscle. Hopefully, both sides will give him a fearlessness where predators are concerned. Anyway, that is how we raise our puppies here on the farm and in a farm situation. It is a full time job and one that we invest heavily in. A good farm dog rarely happens it is usually because someone has put a lot of work into that dog. Blessings, Kat

3 Little Pigs

Yep, that is how many piglets Zoe the pig had and that is how many she promptly crushed. Livestock simply is not easy and sometimes more frustrating than anything. So now we watch Miss Piggy and hope and pray we don't have a repeat. I really need some pork! Hopefully, Zoe's next experience will be a better one. I don't think she meant to crush the little piglets but was overzealous in her mothering and trying to keep them warm. In her efforts to keep raking more straw into the nest I think she tossed them under her and that is simply where they stayed. Disappointing day but we will move on. Blessings, kat

What We Are Up To

We have been busy working on the garden lately. I am sure I have said it before, but we are greatly expanding the garden. We don't need more space to grow more for us as we grow plenty to use immediately and put up for future use. However, one of our big goals this year is to grow more for livestock feed. Feed costs are rising and the drought plaguing most of the country has not showed any sign of letting up. In fact, it just seems to be getting worse. That means even higher grain costs as farmers simply can't grow grain. I have already culled my goat herd and can't afford to cull the rabbit herd, in fact I need to expand that. So what is a smallholder to do? Well, the answer is simply grow as much as you can yourself. Now, it really isn't practical for many smallholder's including myself to try and grow all of their current grain needs. It simply would be too time consuming to do it by hand and too costly to try and find equipment that would even fit on my property let alone find the pasture space to give up to that much production. So again what to do? Well, take a look at what some of the old timers did who were in the same situation. In the days before heavy equipment which led to small grain fields instead of several hundred acres farmers grew root crops to supplement their small grain fields. Things like turnips, beets, sweet potatoes were very often grown more for livestock fodder than human food. These things could be easily stored during the winter to supplement grain. Peas were readily grown for a protein source and often dried on the vine. Vine and all were then fed during the winter to the family milk cow. Another thing that some did was to plant and grow a grain field and then let the stock harvest it themselves. Usually they turned the stock out onto fields that were not quite mature in that the plants were still green and while the grain had formed was nowhere near ready to harvest. The time that the animals were on the fields allowed the farmers to stock up grain rations that would be fed later when the fields were fallow. This meant that the farmer could grow more grain than he was capable of harvesting and still get the benefits of large grain production. So what are we planning here on our little 10 acres? Well, we are planning lots of root crops...turnips, sweet potatoes, and beets in abundance. Everywhere we can stick them. Then we are planning a small grain patch to be rotated throughout the year. Then we are planning on turning the pigs on the front pasture for a few months until it is time to plant quinoa (high in protein) and then move the pigs and plant the grain which will be harvested. We have a lot of concrete space around the pond which is in the center of the garden and we are building beds on top of this concrete to grow crops that would otherwise take up ground space. This will increase our gardening square footage tremendously. We will also be planting loads of field peas to be our protein source. Field peas don't take up much space and a whole lot of them can be grown in a small area. Many varieties produce several crops during the growing season and unlike beans can be fed straight off the vine or simply dried. Once the harvest is done then the whole plant can be pulled up and fed to the livestock. It is a lot of hard work, but we have to watch our costs and even if we can only substitute one store bought grain meal a day for the critters that still cuts our needs in half. So, I guess I had better get to work. Blessings, Kat

Goat Medicine Chest

Since my post yesterday about the Sugar's small bout with Ketosis and my suggestions of having a well stocked medicine chest I thought I would post about what I keep on hand and what I will be adding soon. So here is the list and hopefully it will post as a list this time. Goat Medicine Chest: Cydectin-Wormer typically for cattle and used off label for goats. Ivermectin paste-Another wormer, this is the horse paste Probios- probiotic gel given anytime there is disruption in rumen activity Selenium/Vit. E gel- we are severely deficient in selenium in our soil and deficiency can lead to birth defects and breeding issues CMPK paste- Calcium/Magnesium/Phosphorus/Potassium prevention of hypocalcemia in newly freshened does and heavily pregnant does. Also a good mineral boost if other issues arise. B-complex- good boost at kidding time for both kids and does, stimulates appetite for animals that are not eating, good for treating lethargy. Standard go to for most any health issue Corid- coccidiosis prevention in kids. I typically don't like to use "preventive" type medications but I have had way to many issues with coccidiosis in kids to not use this for each and every kid born here. Albon-Treatment of coccidiosis should one arise after Corid prevention Red Cell-animals suffering from heavy worm load lose a lot of blood, this is a good boost nutritionally for that case and also after kidding Copper boluses-This is a much unless you live in a high copper area, we don't and copper deficiency is prevalent here and causes all sorts of problems to general unthriftiness, breeding issues, low milk production etc. Penicillin G procaine- In case injuries and infection arise, also good to have on hand for respiratory infections. Since we use so few antibiotics here and our herd is closed this has always worked when we have used it. For many it won't work and a stronger antibiotic is needed. Syringes and needles- You will use more than you think you will so have a wide variety and a good amount. Do NOT re-use needles you wouldn't believe how the needle bends after one injection. Nitrofurazone gel- for wounds Vet wraps- in case of serious injuries lubricant jelly- in case I need to go in for a stuck kid 7% iodine- navels at birth, general disinfectant Gloves-have never used them but they are there in case I need to take care of something infectious Blood stop powder- to help stem bleeding if need be, use it more on the dogs than the goats but it is good stuff. Kaopectate- to help control diarrhea that has gone on too long Pedialyte- easy to use drench electrolyte solution Sterile Saline- to replenish a dehydrated animal I think that is about it for goats and of course some of these things can be used across the board for many of the livestock. One thing that I am adding to my box this year is Replamin Plus gel. Several breeders have been having great results with this for replacing and maintaining copper levels, especially those that have high iron levels which inhibits copper absorption. Blessings, Kat